The speaker line-up for the 2016 CityCamp NC technology conference is one of the best yet. You do not want to miss this amazing group of people that we’ve brought together to inspire us to improve and transform our communities.

Keynote

Jen Pahlka

Code for America believes that government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. Our networks of change agents in government, civic hackers, and entrepreneurs are reinventing the relationship between citizens and their government.

You can complain about how government works, or you can help fix it. Get involved by joining or starting your local Brigade (developers and those who’ve never coded are both welcome!), by applying for our year-long fellowship to work with a city, county or state around the country, or starting a company in the civic tech ecosystem. If you’re local government and you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch!

Inspiration

Erik Garr

Erik Garr is the Regional Manager for Google Fiber in the Southeast region of the United States. Google Fiber’s Super-fast internet and TV service is now available in Charlotte, Atlanta, Nashville, and Morrisville (and soon the rest of the Triangle!). Erik is the business manager responsible for the day to day operations of these markets.

Erik holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science with high honors from the University of Michigan and holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Chicago.

Amy Gaskins

Amy Gaskins is the founder of Panopticon, a management consulting firm based in Cary with clients around the globe. Before venturing out on her own, Amy was the Big Data Project Director and a member of the Senior Executive Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce. She was previously an Assistant Vice President in MetLife’s Global Technology & Operations, serving as the organization’s principal subject matter expert for data analysis and business intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa. In her prior government service, Amy spent over 10 years as a senior intelligence analyst supporting various agencies within the United States Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. She has served in both strategic and tactical roles, including deployments to Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Her previous assignments include the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, the Office of Military Commissions – Defense, JFCC-ISR, U.S. Army INSCOM, and Defense HUMINT.

John Yaist

A Map Geek through and through, recalling the Inner Nerd with a story of asking for an almanac on his 10th birthday. Troubleshooter of geographic databases for years, recently entered into the world of web services and Python programming and has taken to coordinating Esri’s presence at various Hackathons and App Challenges.

Welcome – Bonner Gaylord

Bonner Gaylord has served on the Raleigh City Council since 2009. He was elected by the citizens of District E, which includes areas near downtown, midtown, and northwest Raleigh.

Council Member Gaylord currently serves as a member of the Council’s Committees for Economic Development & Innovation and Growth & Natural Resources. He serves as the City Council’s liaison to the City’s Appearance Commission and Substance Abuse Advisory Commission. He is also the Council’s liaison to the Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau and the City’s delegate to the Triangle J Council of Government.

Since 2004, Gaylord has worked for Kane Realty Corporation, where he currently serves as general manager of North Hills.

A Raleigh native, Gaylord attended Wake County Public Schools and received his undergraduate and MBA degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill. He and his wife Ashley have three children.

Emcee – Lori Bush

Lori proudly serves on the Town of Cary’s Council as an At-Large Representative. She is a technology advocate and a self-professed “gadget-girl,” with an insatiable curiosity for combining technology and public good. Lori has championed technology adoption in the Town of Cary through the Technology Task Force and the Town ‘s Open Data program amongst many others. At Cisco Systems (her day job) she creates technology solutions for learning and education building training solutions for the next generation of Network Engineers. She also continues to have a passion for ensuring the cyber-safety and security of students and schools, teaching internet safety classes to parents and kids, while stalking their social media accounts to help them stay safe online. Her spare time is spent with her husband and two children (one a Tar Heel, the other at Emerson College in Boston). You may see Lori out on the road in her “Elf” as an avid cyclist, at Jazzercise or ballroom dancing.

Public sector CIO panel

Jane Nickles

As CIO for the City of Greensboro, Jane Nickles serves in the executive capacity as the director of Information Technology and Enterprise Solutions functions. Jane assumes management responsibility for all IT departmental programs, services, personnel, and activities, as well as providing leadership in the development and implementation of information technology initiatives and strategies. Jane is responsible for planning, developing, organizing and directing a comprehensive information technology program, including areas of personal computers, mobile devices, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, enterprise storage and servers, and an extensive fiber optic network connecting city facilities and traffic signals throughout Greensboro.

In 2015, Jane led the effort to gain national recognition for Greensboro as a top 10 Digital City. Jane is currently leading the TriGig Regional High Speed Broadband initiative to bring competitive gigabit internet services to Greensboro and surrounding areas. Other areas of focus include Open Data strategies and Smart Cities initiatives for the City of Greensboro.

Jane is a member of Guilford Rotary Club. She is on the advisory board for UNCG Bryan School Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Department. Jane serves as a co-lead for Broadband Access with National Research Network, a Municipal Partner with Code for Greensboro, and is a member of North Carolina Local Government Information Systems Association.

Bill Greeves

Greeves serves as the Chief Information and Innovation Officer for Wake County, NC. In this role, he is focused on identifying opportunities, building connections and creating solutions that result in better services, happier people and greater efficiency.

Leah Kraus

Leah Kraus has over 25 years of experience in education and technology beginning as a high school teacher in Greensboro NC. After teaching Leah worked at Guilford College where in 2001 she became the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Then in 2007, she had the opportunity to become the Associate Vice Chancellor for Services and Planning at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In 2014, she was selected to serve as the CIO at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) where she is today.

She is responsible for providing innovative vision, strategy, leadership and the coordination of technology policy and planning. Under her leadership, NCCU’s Information Technology Services (ITS) division focuses on providing strategic and collaborative services that support the needs of the 21st Century Scholar, the NCCU faculty and staff.

Leah has been named one of 2015 Best CIOs by Triangle Business Journal. She served on the Dell Higher Education Advisory Board 2013 and 2014, the 2015 GoMobile Enterprise Advisory Board, and Leah currently serves on the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Network Digital Inclusion Fellowship Advisory Board and the Advisory Council of Durham Sister Cities. She was recently featured in Sync Magazine for her transition from classroom teacher to CIO.

Leah Kraus earned a Bachelor of Science in Business, a Business Education Certificate and a Master of Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Darnell Smith

Senior Information Technology Executive with a successful track record in both Private Equity and Fortune 100 companies. Background has provided the opportunity to display superior ability for strategic planning and tactical execution across all facets of IT. Possess leadership experience with large-scale global projects and business transformation initiatives. Skilled in extracting maximum value from technology in a way that supports business profitability.

Panel moderator: John Stephens

John is active with Code for Durham, and is researching civic technology and local brigades. He specializes in collaborative leadership, dispute resolution and citizen engagement, and helps manage the multi-author blog, Community Engagement Learning Exchange.

Lightning talks

Emcee – Caroline Sullivan

Vice Chair of Wake County Board of Commissioners

James Alberque, City of Raleigh, GIS and Web Manager

Invisions Raleigh

Twitter: @jalberque
James Alberque, City of Raleigh Manager of Web Applications & GIS, leads a team of web developers at the City of Raleigh who has delivered dozens of open source web applications for internal and public use. Jim most recently was Senior GIS Manager at the City of Boston.

Jason Baker, OrangePolitics

Making zoning changes consumable with maps and charts from open data

Twitter: @jehb
Jason Baker is technical editor of OrangePolitics.org, an award winning multi-editor blog covering policy, planning, and politics in Orange County, North Carolina. He is the former vice chair of the Chapel Hill Planning Board, where he served for two terms, and has served previously on numerous local boards tackling issues from public transit and transportation to comprehensive planning to budget and revenue. In his day job, he works to connect people with the right open source tools to meet their needs as a writer, editor, and data analyst for Opensource.com

Tia Bethea, Google Fiber, Community Impact Manager

What does the digital divide look like in the Triangle?

Twitter: @tiareneebethea
Tia McLaurin Bethea is the Community Impact Manager for Google Fiber. She is formerly the Assistant Director of Development for the Kenan Fellows Program, the Alumni Relations & Development Director for Leadership North Carolina, and the Director of Corporate & Community Partnerships for Boys & Girls Clubs. She has an M.A. in Predictive Analytics and a B.A. in Sociology from North Carolina State University.

Jay Dawkins, Cityzen

Baby Pics, Citizen Engagement, Cat Pics

Twitter: @DawkinsJay
Jay Dawkins is a transportation engineer turned civic tech entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder of Cityzen, a Raleigh-based software company that helps public agencies use social media and news websites to engage more residents online. He previously served as Student Body President at NC State, and today lives and works in downtown Raleigh.

David Green, Town of Chapel Hill

Introducing Chapel Hill Open Data

Twitter: @greendavida
David Green is the Library Systems Manager and Open Data Project Manager for the Town of Chapel Hill. For Chapel Hill Open Data, he leads an effort to increase transparency and facilitate access to information. Previously at the State Library of North Carolina, Green coordinated the NC Cardinal project: a state-wide consortium of public libraries sharing a single open source integrated library system.

Richard Marshall, City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources

Digital Inclusion Efforts in the City of Raleigh

My name is Richard Marshall, I am 19 years old, I am currently a freshman at NC State, and I am studying Computer Science. I previously worked as a Technical Intern at Fidelity Investments on one of their software engineering teams. On June 22, I participated on a student panel focused on Digital Equity at NCSU’s Friday Institute. I have a deep interest in volunteerism and also in the Grand Challenges of Engineering. I hope to eventually work for a large technical corporation and make great strides in improving the future for all of mankind through the use of technology!

Bill Scanlon, Wake County Government

Get a little help from your friends – A way to find solutions with community input

Twitter: @bilscanlon
Bill is a part of a collaborative effort to develop Open Data & Innovation programs at Wake County and is part of the team at Wake County that launched their Open Data portal in January 2015. He has worked in county government for 13 years and is a certified Project Management Professional, Scrum Master, and Local Government CIO.

Rebecca Tippett, Carolina Demography, UNC-Chapel Hill

Diversity in the Triangle: Insights from Census Data

Twitter: @ncdemography
Rebecca Tippett is Director of Carolina Demography at the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. She works with Census and other data to understand and explain the impact of demographic and social trends to community organizations, policy makers, and business leaders throughout the state.

Andrew Turner, Esri

Space-Time Visualizations and You

Twitter: @ajturner
Andrew is a neogeographer and purveyor of personal cartography. He is the Director of Esri R&D DC, helps lead Esri’s open-source strategy and is architect of ArcGIS Open Data and GeoHub. Andrew has advised the United Nations, World Bank, US White House, and federal, state and local government agencies across the country.

Allison Warren-Barbour, United Way of the Greater Triangle

Ending Poverty through Virtual Reality

Twitter: @UWTriangle
Twitter: @AllisnWB
Allison Warren-Barbour is Senior Vice President of Resource Development & Engagement for United Way of the Greater Triangle. She leads her team in developing innovative approaches to engage local problem-solvers around our area’s most complex social issues facing Triangle families with young children. She directs strategies around individual and corporate engagement, major gifts and grants, and social innovation (Innovate United). Over the course of her career, Allison has raised over $100 million in community investments. She just recently launched a 2-year $1.5 million Innovate United incubator fund to help create an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs with investable ideas.